Poison fruit by Jacqueline Carey

 So, this is supposed to be the final book in the Agent of Hel series by Carey, and I'm  reading along, noticing that Daisy needs to find out why the demon spawn lawyer is trying to buy up all the real estate in Pemkowet, get over her love affair with Cody the were-sheriff and hook up with the ghoul, Stefan, and dispose of the Night Hag which is attacking people in their sleep, plus determine at last whether to remain on the side of the good guys, or claim her demonic heritage and all the powers that entails. How in the world can Carey wrap it all up in one book? I had to just read on to find out. Parenthetically, I'm also wondering what's next for Carey. It would be wonderful if she'd get back to Terre d'Ange. But I digress.

Yes, she did manage to wrap up all the disparate threads of the story. She may have left the door open a crack to return to Pemkowet at some point.

In order to rid the town of the Night Hag, Daisy has to dream her worst nightmare, breaking the world by claiming her demonic birthright and powers, which leaves her repeating the dream and worrying about its implications even after the hag is gone. Her breakup with Cody is messy and prolonged, and twisted, and made even more complex when the head of his clan convenes a "mixer" for prospective mates which Daisy is required to attend as Hel's representative.

The lawyer, acting for a mysterious client, has all sorts of tricks up his demonic sleeves, and drags the city fathers (and mothers) of Pemkowet into court to face a class action suit which results in them being forced to deliver the land where Hel's demesne is located to another minor deity. Daisy has to gather all of the eldritch forces she has obtained favors from in order to fight a losing battle to defend Hel's reign.

Her love affair with Stefan starts slowly and builds to a dangerous level, as her heightened emotions could, at any time, trigger his Outcast ravening. She, and we, learn a lot more about his past and the plight of the Outcasts through this story.

It all resolves into a neat little bundle at the end of this series. Let's see if Carey gets back to some serious and epic writing again, or if she continues to put out these light confections.

Terre d'Ange Plot Summaries

These might prove handy if you're trying to remember what went on in a previous novel in the series - from Wikipedia.

Kushiel's Legacy Trilogy - Phedra

Kushiel's Dart #1
Kushiel's Chosen #2
Kushiel's Avatar #3

(UK) Treason's Heir or Imriel Trilogy

Kushiel's Scion #1
Kushiel's Justice #2
Kushiel's Mercy #3

Moirin Trilogy

Namaah's Kiss #1
Namaah's Curse #2
Namaah's Blessing #3

Autumn Bones by Jacqueline Carey

 So, I'm still not sure why Carey has forsaken creating masterpieces of fantastic fiction, as in her Terre d'Ange works, for contemporary urban fantasy. It's fortunate that my local library carried a copy of Autumn Bones, for I'd have hated to pay hardback prices for this one. The one true saving grace of protagonist Daisy Johanssen from the first novel was that she wasn't indiscriminately sleeping around with any supernatural being who crooked a finger. In this installment, she loses that figurative virginity and just joins the hordes of monster mattress maulers.

First, she catches a dose of satyr rut mojo when she and Cody try to break up an orgy at the local gay bar, and falls into bed with her almost boyfriend, Sinclair, who turns out to be the descendant of a long line of obeahs (Jamaican sorcerers), which is the main conflict in what passes for the story line of Autumn Bones. When it turns out that her Mr. Right has forgotten to tell her his whole life story and important details from his sordid past, though, she decides that they need to be "just friends-with benefits, of course" while they sort out the members of his family who want to get her out of the picture and force him to return to the islands.

Then, when she discovers Cody sleeping off his lycanthropic adventures in the nude, she jumps his furry bones, too. This complicates their working arrangement somewhat, but if it all goes south, it's obvious she won't lack for company, as Stefan the Outcast seems more than willing to take one for the team. All of the side plots turn out to be pretty much just distracting candy for the main event, which pits Daisy and her allies against a shambling resurrected giant axe murderer. One sub plot remained unresolved at the end, so I am certain we'll see more of Daisy's antics.

There must be money in urban fantasy - I can't imagine why Carey would waste her time with it otherwise.

Dark Currents by Jacqueline Carey

 One fringe benefit of reading this book was that I finally found out what genre Santa Olivia and Saints Astray belong to - postmodern fables - it's on the back cover blurb about the author. In Kushiel's Dart and the books about Phedra and Terre d'Ange that follow it, Carey created a masterpiece, an epic, an amazing piece of historical fantasy fiction - a very tough act to follow. In Dark Currents, she leaps into the world of urban fantasy, and I frankly have no idea why, aside from "all the cool kids are doing it". Don't get me wrong, she's still a very skilled writer, even when she's writing soulless drivel. If you haven't read any of her earlier novels, that's great, you'll be able to enjoy this new one without prejudice.

Daisy Johanssen is a demon-spawn, quite literally. Her mother was impregnated by an incubus, and decided to raise her child in the human world, in a small town in the midwest called Pemkowet. Pemkowet has either the fortune or misfortune to be the current site of a sprout of Yggsdrasil, and the seat of power of the goddess Hel of Norse mythology, and Daisy - all grown up, is her liason between the eldritch and the mundane world. Daisy works as a file clerk in the police station, but when there appears to be something odd about the "accidental" drowning of a local college kid, she gets dragged into the investigation, and paired with Officer Cody Fairfax, one of the local werewolves, on whom she's had a secret crush since childhood.

It's an amusing little mystery tale, with plenty of supernatural window dressing. The tale is pretty much PG, suitable for teen audiences - any actual sex and graphic violence take place offstage. Unlike most urban fantasy heroines, at least Daisy doesn't need to be persuaded to use her friends to help out as necessary, which is refreshing. Read this one on its own merits, it's in the upper percentiles of the urban fantasy being published already.

Saints Astray by Jacqueline Carey

 I summarily panned the first book in this series - didn't realize Carey was going to write a sequel - I thought it was just something from her early work she'd capitalized on her newfound fame to publish. This one seemed a bit better, though it seems she has a problem deciding whether she's writing for a young adult or a true adult audience.

In Saints Astray we pick up the tale of Loup, a genetically modified organism (basically human, with enhancements to strength, speed, etc.) who used to live in an Outpost or military compound where she and other residents were permanently exiled. She won her freedom in a boxing match against another GMO who was a member of the military, but was thrown in jail after her victory, tortured for a while, but helped to escape by her erstwhile opponent. She and her lover, Pilar, escaped through a tunnel at the end of Santa Olivia, and are now stateless persons.

There's a hint of Pygmalion in this tale, when the head of Global Security, Magnus Lindberg, offers Loup a job working for his company. He feels that some celebrities and other wealthy folks will enjoy the novelty of having the one and only free GMO playing bodyguard for them, and expects to make a tidy profit selling her services. Loup insists that Pilar be hired, as well, for her bartending and administrative skills, and the two end up going to Scottland for six weeks to be trained by former special forces types in the nitty gritty of the protection business.

They are given several opportunities to earn their pay after they are trained, and swiftly turn out to be a fantastic team, or addition to normal human security teams.

The threat of being exposed as a GMO, who have been determined to have no human rights (in the USA, anyway, not sure of their exact status elsewhere in the world), and imprisoned again, or worse, is still hanging over Loup's head. In their final assignment, they develop strong friendships with the members of a pop band called Kate, and when Loup shares her story with them, the band decides that it's time they got involved with the GMO cause, politically a la Bono.

The tale moves pretty quickly, and has some good action scenes, some mildly risque sex scenes, and some extraordinarily maudlin sentimental whining by young and often star-crossed lovers Loup and Pilar. I still think Carey's best work was with the Terre d'Ange novels, and I'm not thrilled with anything else she's done.

Naamah's Blessing by Jacqueline Carey

Naamah's Blessing is the final volume in the trilogy of books about Moirin that began in
Naamah's Kiss and Naamah's Curse. Moirin and Bao, her Chi'in husband, arrive back in Terre d'Ange after their long journeys through Chi'in and Vralia, hoping perhaps to resume a quiet life in the capitol. They find that the crown prince, Thierry, has led an expedition to Terra Nova (analogous to The New World in our reality), to establish trade with the natives there, rivaling the missions of the Aragonians there. King Daniel is still grieving Jehane, who died birthing their daughter, Desiree, and doesn't spend much time with his daughter, as it brings back too many painful memories for him. He beseeches Moirin to become the girls oath-sworn protector, for the sake of Moirin's love for Jehane, for whom the girl is a near double (tho much younger, of course).

I can't recall, from the first novel in the series, whether Daniel was a weak person to
begin with or not, but he's not portrayed well here. When Thierry's expedition returns
without Thierry, reporting that he has been lost and perished in the jungles of Terra Nova,
Daniel takes his own life, leaving Moirin and Bao to deal with the ensuing chaos. One of
Daniel's chief counselors, Duc Rogier, assumes the regency, and his family begins to scheme
to betroth Desiree to his son, Tristan.

Moirin has a dream/vision about Jehane, who is caught between the world of the living and
the world of the dead, who reveals to her that Thierry is still alive, and that Moirin is
the one chosen by the gods to find him and return him to Terre d'Ange. Some sleight of hand
ensues as Moirin and her unlikely allies manipulate things so that Rogier must endorse the
mission, and eventually they set sail for strange lands once more.

As we've come to expect from Carey, there are plenty of very difficult and dangerous
situations which Moirin and her crew encounter and conquer. The novel contains an
interesting take on the practice of human sacrifice, as practiced by the peoples of Central
America...er...Terra Nova. Again, Moirin and Bao's struggles and sacrifices are moving, and
many of the descriptive passages about their travels and encounters with the natives and the
wildlife are very moving.

The only downside is that this book finishes off the Moirin saga, and I'm afraid that we'll
have to come to know and love a different hero or heroine when she returns to Terre d'Ange
once more.

Short Takes

(11/7/09) Dug into Applied Economics, by Thomas Sowell. I gotta say, Sowell is a great conservative columnist, but as a writer of anything longer than a couple of pages, the man can bog me down way too fast. Lots of interesting little tidbits, but I'm fading fast on this one. 

(11/14/09) Finished reading Santa Olivia, by Jacqueline Carey. It has a feel like it was something she wrote before she did her Kushiel's stuff, but never got published, and now that she's a published author, they printed it. Not her best work, for sure.

Short Takes

(7/26/08) Finished a book by John Stossel, Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity. A pretty good take on things that are debated in America today, though the articles seemed to lack depth. Probably just a compilation of various short reports he's done in the news business, really. Only thing I disagreed with was his take on child-rearing. Reminded me once again that my views are more libertarian than republican, as far as our major political parties are concerned.

(8/10/08) Finished Jhegaala, by Brust - not his best work.

(8/11/08) Read Kushiel's Mercy for a while before dinner. Carey just gets better the more she writes...Continued reading until I forced myself to put it down around 10:30. I'd have stayed up until the wee hours if I hadn't, just to finish it.

Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey

Note: This book is for mature audiences only. The review, however, is pretty much PG rated.


Was running a little short on reading material from the public library the other night, so I decided to re-read one of my favorites.

I guess this book falls somewhere between the categories of historical fantasy and alternative history. The story takes place in the country called Terre d'Ange, where today we would find France. The place and character names are liberally laced with French sounding words. The myth behind this world is that when Christ (Yeshua) died, Mary Magdalene wept over his body, and from her tears and his blood Mother Earth bore a son, an angel called Elua. Elua wandered the world with a dozen companion angels, but spent most of their time in Terre d'Ange, where they interbred with humans and bore the races that live there in the story. The surrounding countries also have had their names changed to protect the innocent, such as Alba (England), Aragon (Spain), Caerdicci (Italy), and so forth.

One of Elua's companions was Namaah, a female angel. During their travels, she would offer her body in exchange for support of one type or another. Her self-sacrificing behavior make her a patron saint, of sorts, to the d'Angelines, as Elua's last command to them before leaving for a higher plane was "love as thou wilt." In Terre d'Ange, courtesans of both sexes are indentured to one of the thirteen houses of the Night Court, and are highly trained and valued, performing their services for patrons until they have paid back their indenture price, and after that are free to love as they will.

In this setting, which is far more richly detailed by Carey than I have been able to share with you here, our heroine is a girl named Phedre, sold by her mother to the House of Cereus at the age of four. She is raised and educated in all the courtly arts by them until she is ten, when her indenture is sold to Anafiel Delaunay. Phedre was born with a scarlet "flaw" in her eye, which the adepts of Cereus scorn her for, but Delaunay recognizes the mark for what it is, the sign of Kushiel's Dart. Kushiel is one of the angelic companions of Elua, concerned with punishment, and his mark brands Phedre as an anguissette, an extremely rare person for whom pain is transformed into sexual pleasure.

Delaunay's motives, however, are a bit more complex than simply "pimping" Phedre out to those patrons who have a taste for sexual sadism. He is somewhat of a spy master, and he trains Phedre and another indentured servant, Alcuin, in the nuances of history and politics, the art of observation and intelligence gathering, and the languages of several nearby countries. When they reach the age when they are allowed to enter the "service of Namaah," they begin to accept assignments with various patrons whom Delaunay hopes may have information regarding conspiracies against the ruling house of Terre d'Ange, to whom he is intensely loyal.

And thence begins the tale. The story of Phedre's journeys is an intense, emotional, and deeply moving one. It's got tons of intrigue, plot twists, villainy, heroism, and everything that makes a classic. Best of all, it's the first book in a trilogy, followed by Kushiel's Choice and Kushiel's Avatar.

I highly recommend this one to those who are not faint of heart.

Naamah's Curse, by Jacqueline Carey

This story continues the tale of Moirin which Carey began in Naamah's Kiss, part of a new cycle taking place several generations after her tales of Phedre and Jocelyn, Imri and Sidonie in the Kushiel cycle. Moirin's lover, Bao, has fled the land of Chi'in, trying to come to terms with his return from death. Part of Moirin's spirit is living in him now, and after waiting for him for several months, the compulsion to be joined with him is too strong, and she sets out to find him.

She travels to the borders of Chi'in, and enters the endless steppes of the Tatar tribes, following the call  of her divided spirit in Bao. When she is forced by the weather to spend the winter with a Tatar family in their tent, or ger, she begins to forge bonds of adopted kinship with them. In the spring, she sets out once again, and at the Great Gathering of the tribes, she is finally reunited with Bao once more.

Unfortunately, in the meantime, Bao has been wed to the daughter of the great Khan, and neither the Khan nor his daughter is happy to see Moirin. He conspires with men from the land of Vralia to capture her and contain her magic, and the Vralians take her back to their own lands. The Khan misdirects Bao by telling him that Moirin was kidnapped by The Falconer, a prince of assassins whose domain is in an entirely different direction.

Moirin is held captive by the Patriarch of the church of Elua in Vralia, Rostov. He has plans to forcibly convert her to the Habiru faith and to use her as a political lever to begin a crusade against Terre d'Ange, where they definitely worship Elua and his Companions in a totally different manner. Moirin must find a way to escape his clutches and to resume her quest to be joined with Bao once more.

Carey has once again returned to the type of gripping tale that we saw in the latter portion of her first trilogy, placing her heroine in a place of suffering. Contrary to Phedre's nature, Moirin is not particularly suited to enjoy torture and pain, and the way she succeeds through her trials is perhaps more subtle. There are some wonderful undercurrents throughout the book, hinting at the deeper tasks that the gods have assigned to Moirin. It's obvious that her quest not only serves her own desires, but serves as a spark to move men and nations. Looking forward to the conlusion of this trilogy, though I don't see how Carey can possibly resolve all the issues raised here in a single volume.

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